Matilde Landeta

Early Life

After the passing of her mother when she was three years of age, Landeta moved to San Luis, Potosí where she would be raised by her aunt and grandmother. She then moved back to Mexico City where she continued her studies in a monastery for Dominican mothers. Her love for film was born when she watched the film Old San Francisco during a trip to the United States.

Career

In 1931, Matilde Landeta's brother, Eduardo Landeta, began his career as an actor when he got hired to play a secondary character on a film directed by Arcady Boytler. Matilde's love for film kept her coming back to visit her brother on set. During one of her visits, Miguel Zacarias offered her a job as a make-up artist. However, he saw that she was eager for more. In 1932, Miguel decided to give Matilde a chance as script supervisor. Due to her gender, she had to prove that she was capable to do the job when applying for the position of assistant director. She was forced to reach out to the Sindicato de Trabajadores de la Produccion Cinematografica in order to get the job. In 1945 she became assistant director and worked with many well known directors at the time. These included Emilio Fernández, Julio Bracho, and Roberto Gavaldón.

From there, she went ahead and began the process of becoming a Director herself. However, despite having worked in the industry for many years, she received no support when it came to her career as a filmmaker. Production companies would refuse to help her finance her film and the labor union refused to back her up as well.

It was then that she decided to hold her house as collateral in order to acquire a loan from the bank and sell her car in order to create her own production company, TACMA S.A. De C.V., which would fund her first full feature, Lola Casanova, in 1948. However, distribution companies boycotted her film, once she was done shooting it. Landeta was not able to release her film to the public for over a year until she was allowed to premiere her film as a B-movie on a Tuesday during Semana Santa

Her second feature film, La Negra Angustias, was not only boycotted like her first film, but also received very harsh criticism from her colleagues in the industry. From here on out, her name and reputation as a Director began to decline exponentially within the industry. Landeta was to direct Tribunal de Menores. However, when she asked the Eduardo Garduaño, a member of the National Bank of Cinematography for help, he convinced Landeta to sell her screenplay She took his advice sold the film to director Alfonso Corona Blake who renamed the film El camino de la vida. They tried to exclude her name from the credits but she ended proceeded to sue them and maintained recognition for her screenplay. However due to this incident, the National Bank of Cinematography stopped supporting her. Due to her current position, Landeta suffered from a shortage of talent crew and money, which made it nearly impossible for her to continue her work. This situation did not allow her to make films in Mexico for forty years. therefore, she decided to work in the United States.

She continued writing for many years where she wrote over 100 shorts and after several decades later she wrote and directed her last feature film Nocturno a Rosario (1991).

Personal life

Matilda grew up in a household that did not support her decision to become a filmmaker. This created a very strong conflict that damaged her family ties. During one of her interviews, however, she talks about how this was resolved one Christmas where she visited her family during the holidays.

In 1933, Landeta married a colonel from Sonora who went by the name of Martín Toscano Rodríguez. When Martín proposed, she made it clear that she had a commitment to her career as a filmmaker to which the colonel claimed to have no issues with. They got divorced 10 years later because Landeta expressed no wish to have a family with her husband. In one of her interviews she talks about an unplanned pregnancy which resulted in a sick baby who died after three days of giving birth. She claims to have to desire to be a mother whatsoever.

Awards and recognition

Landeta won an Ariel Award in 1957 for Best Original Story for the film El camino de la vida which she co-wrote with her brother Eduardo. The film also won the 1957 Golden Ariel, the Silver Ariel Film of Major National Interest and Best Direction and two other awards in 1956 in the Berlin International Film Festival under the name of Alfonso Corona Blake.

In 1975, Landeta was recognized for her film La negra Angustias in the Women Directors category for the International Women's Year. This was the first recognition she received including many others such as: the Italian Festival de Cine Femenino that paid homage to Landeta and showed her films in 1987; the Ariel Awards that gave her an honorary award for Lifetime Achievement in 1992 and many more between those years. Landeta also taught at the Instituto Cinematográfico, the first film school in Mexico; and she presided the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences of México twice.

In 2004, the Matilde Landeta Cultural Association was created to award screenwriters annual scholarships.

Filmography

Her first and second feature films were adaptations of Francisco Rojas González's novel Lola Casanova (1948) and La Negra Angustias (1949). She also co-wrote and directed Trotacalles (1951)